Portability Initiative is Designed to Help 55 and Over to Sell Their Homes and Buy Another

The California Association of Realtors (CAR) is attempting to qualify a ballot initiative, The Property Tax Fairness Initiative, that will restructure the way property taxes are calculated for buyers over the age of 55 (also the disabled and/or natural disaster victims).

CAR says, “A large part of the reason why (55 and overs are not moving) is that, even if they want to downsize or move closer to family, the prospect of a property tax increase of 100, 200, or even 300 percent, effectively locks our parents and our grandparents in their homes.” Thus, CAR maintains, “The Property Tax Initiative will help these homeowners to sell their current homes and move without being subjected to what is effectively a massive moving penalty”.

How will it help? Currently there are only limited conditions under which someone over 55 may transfer his or her old tax base to a newly purchased home. The Initiative would expand this.

“C.A.R.’s Property Tax Fairness Initiative would allow homeowners 55 years of age or older to transfer their Prop. 13 tax-base to a home of any price, located anywhere in the state, any number of times.” –taken from realtytimes.com 2-13-18

The median price paid for all Southern California homes sold in December 2017 was $507,000, a new all-time high that surpasses the previous peak of $505,000.
Absentee buyers (investors and second home purchasers) bought 22.9% of Southland homes sold in December 2017. The peak was 32.2% in February 2013. The monthly average for absentee buyers since 2000 is about 18.0%.

The number of homes that sold for $500,000 or more in December 2017 accounted for 51.3% of all sales. That is up from 45.4% in December 2016.

Foreclosure re-sales (properties foreclosed on in the prior 12 months) represented 1.4% of the Southland re-sale market in December 2017. That was down from 2.9% in December 2016. Foreclosure resales peaked at 56.7% in February 2009.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Loans made up 16.1% of all home purchase loans in Southern California in December 2017. Riverside and San Bernardino counties experienced the region’s highest FHA share in December at 25.1% and 26.9% respectively.

With keen awareness of California’s shortage of affordable housing, the legislature passed more than 20 bills related to housing in this year’s session.

Chief among these laws is Senate Bill 2.

This law provides a permanent source of funding for affordable housing by imposing a flat $75 per document recording fee on every real estate instrument that is NOT part of a sales transaction. In this way, SB 2 is written to ensure that the fee will not burden home purchase transactions.

The fee will be capped at $225 per transaction and coordinated with other revenue sources.

C.A.R. supported SB 2 which dedicates 20% of the funds generated to affordable workforce housing and 70% of revenues to local governments for housing.

Gary and April Greer Connecting Buyers and Sellers since 1998 (951) 522-0518 or april@teamgreer.com